Wrapping up 2014…Bring on 2015

This is the piece I completed last week in Letterkenny for First Fortnight and Mental Health Ireland, working with local Letterkenny group Create-A-Link.

This excerpt from First Fortnight’s website sums up the goal of this project:

“We believe the arts allow us to create a space where people can talk about mental health issues in a non-scripted manner. Once that conversation has begun, we hope this will then help to change people’s perceptions about an issue that affects us all with one in four of us set to experience a mental health problem at some point in our lives.”

The piece itself was based on prompts and ideas that the Create-A-Link group had discussed, which I then visually interpreted. ‘Wearing a Mask’ was a strong theme that resonated. In my piece the character is wearing a mask, but it’s coming off, being lifted slightly off of her face with the tie loose. In the background she is surrounded be a canine-like figure (inspired by the sometimes naming of depression as the ‘black dog’) made up of ‘I’m fine.’ ‘I’m inside.’ ‘Talk to me.’ ‘I want to be better.’

Huge thanks to Gerry, don’t think I could have done it without him. Big shout out to Bill, Peadar, Eithne, Dermy, Aidan, Wissam, Ruth’s Pharmacy, The mighty scaffold producing council men and the Create-A-Link group who kept us fuelled with tea and sandwiches on what turned out to be a very cold and wet couple of days

This time of year can be particularly hard on people. For more information on these fantastic groups and the great work they are doing to create awareness and support for mental health issues see below: